Humidification

Humidification Operations

 In the processing of materials it is often necessary either to increase

the amount of vapour present in a gas stream, an operation known as
humidification
 Or to reduce the vapour present, a process referred to as
dehumidification
 Active humidification systems are complex, expensive to operate, and
maintenance intensive
 Humidification is an energy intensive process that can also create
moisture problems if not properly designed, installed and
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implemented
Humidification Operations
 Humidification Operations

 Humidification is the artificial regulation of humidity in home

environments, industrial environments, and health care applications

such as artificial respiration
 The vapour content may be increased by passing the gas over a liquid

which then evaporates into the gas stream

 This transfer into the main stream takes place by diffusion, and at the

interface simultaneous heat and mass transfer take place

 In the reverse operation, that is dehumidification, partial condensation is

done and the condensed vapour removed

 Humidification Operations

 The most widespread application of humidification and

dehumidification involves the air-water system

 Drying of wet solids

 Air Conditioning
 Breathing Process
 Cooling Towers, etc.
 Commonly Used Definitions in Humidification Operations
 Dry air : Dry air refers to normal mixture of gases observed in
earth without water vapor
 Moist air : Combination of dry air plus water vapor
 Humidity : mass of vapour associated with unit mass of dry gas
 Humidity of saturated gas: humidity of the gas when it is
saturated with vapour at a given temperature
 Humid heat: heat required to raise unit mass of dry gas and its
associated vapour through unit temperature difference at
constant pressure, or:

where Ca and Cw are the specific heat capacities of the gas

and the vapour, respectively.
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 Saturated gas : is a gas in which the vapor is in
equilibrium with the liquid at the gas temperature
 Relative humidity : the ratio of partial pressure of the
vapor to the vapor pressure of the liquid at the gas
temperature
 Percentage humidity : the ratio of actual humidity to
the saturation humidity at the gas temperature
 Commonly Used Definitions in Humidification Operations

 Humid volume : Volume occupied by unit mass of dry gas

and its associated vapor . This is also sometimes called as
specific volume and is simply reciprocal of density.
Humid volume increases as the temperature or water vapor
content increases.
 Dew point : temperature at which the gas is saturated with
vapour. As a gas is cooled, the dew point is the temperature at
which condensation will first occur.

 Total enthalpy : the enthalpy of a unit mass of gas plus vapor

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The relationship between the partial pressure of the
vapour and the humidity of a gas may be derived as
follows. In unit volume of gas:
Commonly Used Definitions in Humidification Operations
Amount of water in humid air

The amount of water in humid air can be

expressed in several ways;
• Relative humidity, Y
• Water content, xw
• Dew point
• Dry, and wet bulb temperature
 Dew point
Cooling Air
When air is cooled, relative humidity
increases as shown to the right.
Cooling air that is 90oF/20% RH causes the
relative humidity to increase until it reaches
100%; the temperature known as the dew
point (43.6oF in this example). At the dew
point, moisture begins to condense out of
the air and is transformed from vapor to
liquid.
Most everyone has witnessed bathroom
mirrors 'fogging' during a hot shower or
iced-drink glasses 'sweating' on the outside.
The cool surfaces are simply condensing
moisture out of humid air.
This aspect of psychrometrics is very
important when it comes to analyzing indoor
conditions as temperatures and humidity
levels within our environments are very
dynamic.
Relative Humidity
• The amount of moisture in air can be
expressed in a number of ways but
the most common reference is
relative humidity. This value,
expressed as a percentage,
represents the amount of moisture in
the air relative to the amount of
moisture air could hold at that
temperature.
Therefore, the relative humidity at a given temperature will range from
0% (dry air) to 100% (fully saturated air). (When you exceed 100%,
moisture starts falling out of the air and it rains.)
Relative Humidity
In other words, air at 70
degrees Fahrenheit (70oF)
and 50% relative humidity
(50% RH) is holding half of
what it could hold when
completely saturated
(100% RH) as shown on the
right.
 Definitions

Dry-bulb temperature is the commonly measured temperature from a thermometer. It is

called "dry-bulb" since the sensing tip of the thermometer is dry (see "wet bulb
temperature" for comparison).

Dry-bulb temperature is located on the horizontal, or x-axis, of the psychrometric chart

and lines of constant temperature are represented by vertical chart lines. Since this
temperature is so commonly used, it can be assumed that temperatures are dry-bulb
temperatures unless otherwise designated.
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 Water Cycle

 Evaporation - water changes from liquid to vapor

 Transpiration - water taken up through plant roots
 Sublimation - water changes from solid to vapor
 Evapotranspiration - sum total of evaporation &
transpiration together
 Condensation - water changes from vapor to liquid
 Deposition - water changes from vapor to solid
 Precipitation

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Wet Bulb Temperature

 When a stream of unsaturated gas is passed over the surface of a liquid, the
humidity of the gas is increased due to evaporation of the liquid. The
temperature of the liquid falls below that of the gas and heat is transferred
from the gas to the liquid.
 At equilibrium the rate of heat transfer from the gas just balances that
required to vaporize the liquid and the liquid is said to be at the wet-bulb
temperature.
 The rate at which this temperature is reached depends on the initial
temperatures and the rate of flow of gas past the liquid surface.

 The rate of transfer of heat from the gas to the liquid can be written as:

where Q is the heat flow, h the coefficient of heat transfer, A the area for
18transfer, and θ and θW are the temperatures of the gas and liquid phases.
 Wet Bulb Temperature
 The liquid evaporating into the gas is transferred by diffusion
from the interface to the gas stream as a result of a concentration
difference (C0 — c), where C0 is the concentration of the vapour at
the surface (mass per unit volume) and c is the concentration in
the gas stream. The rate of evaporation is then given by:

 where hD is the coefficient of mass transfer.

 Wet Bulb Temperature
 The partial pressures of the vapour, Pw and PW0, may be
expressed in terms of the corresponding humidities Ⱨ and Ⱨw
 If Pw and PW0 are small compared with P, (P — Pw) and (P —
PW0) may be replaced by a mean partial pressure of the gas PA
and:

where δA is the density of the gas at the partial pressure

PA
 Wet Bulb Temperature
 The heat transfer required to maintain this rate of evaporation
is:

 where λ is the latent heat of vaporisation of the liquid.

The wet-bulb temperature θW depends only on the temperature

and the humidity of the gas.
For the air water system, the ratio (h/hDpA) is about 1,0 kJ/kg K
and varies from 1.5 to 2,0 kJ/kg K for organic liquids.
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 Humidity Chart

 A convenient diagram showing the properties of mixture of

gas and a condensable vapor is the humidity chart
 Many forms of such charts have been proposed
 Temperature as abscissas & Humidities as ordinates
 Adiabatic cooling lines
 Humid heat, Saturated volume, Specific volume of dry air
and Humid volume

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 Use of Humidity Chart

 The usefulness of the humidity chart as a source of data on a

definite air-water mixture can be shown by fig.
 For a given stream of under-saturated air is known to have
a temperature and a percentage humidity “Ha1”

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 HUMIDITY DATA FOR THE AIR-
WATER SYSTEM
To facilitate calculations, various properties of the
air-water system are plotted on a psychrometric or
humidity chart.
Such a chart is based on either the temperature or the
enthalpy of the gas.
The temperature-humidity chart is the more
commonly used though the enthalpy-humidity chart
is particularly useful for determining the effect of
mixing two gases or of mixing a gas and a liquid.

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 Humidity-temperature chart

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26
 Specific Volume and Saturated volume

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Cooling Towers
A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which
extracts waste heat to the atmosphere through
the cooling of a water stream to a lower
temperature
Cooling Towers
Used to cool down water in industry.
The warm liquid comes in contact with unsaturated gas,
part of liquid evaporates and liquid Temp. drops.
The warm water from condensers & heat exchangers in
Chemical plants, power plants, air conditioning units are
cooled by this method and recirculated again in the
process.
Cooling towers are large diameter columns
 Special packing to increase gas-liquid contact
 Low Pressure drop
 Principle of Operation for
Cooling Towers
The principle of operation of cooling towers is
very similar to that of the evaporative type of
condensers, in which the warm water gets
cooled by means of evaporation.
Water evaporates as a result of the hot water
droplet coming in contact with the air (which is
being pumped out by means of a fan). This
evaporating water also absorbs the latent heat
from the water surrounding it. By losing latent
heat, the water is cooled.
Importance
Dependable source for removal of low grade
heats
Comparatively inexpensive
Low maintance cost
Types of Cooling Towers
According to the method adopted to circulate the
air
Natural Draft
Mechanical Draft
Natural Draft Cooling Towers
The air is circulated inside the cooling tower by
natural convection. The natural draft cooling
towers are further classified as:
1. Natural draft cooling towers spray type
2. Natural draft cooling towers splash deck type
SPRAY TYPE
SPLASH DECK TYPE
This type of cooling tower is very similar to that
of the spray type.
Instead of a spray header, a water box is used.
The water box has small holes at the bottom.
It also contains decking inside the tower. The
hot water from the condenser enters into the
water box and splashes via holes in the water
box on the decking.
The main objective of the decking is to increase
the surface area of contact of air with the warm
water. This type of cooling tower is 20-30%
more effective than the spray type
Natural Draft Cooling Towers
 Use very large concrete chimneys to introduce
air through the media
 Used for water circulation rates above 45,000
cum/h (Normally for power plants, where
condenser water requirements are high)
Mechanical Draft Cooling Towers
The mechanical draft cooling towers are very
much similar to that of the natural draft cooling
towers.
As the name indicates, air is circulated inside the
tower mechanically instead of natural circulation.
Propeller fans or centrifugal fans may be used.
 Water falls downwards over fill surfaces, which
help increase of contact time between water and
air (increases heat transfer)
 Mechanical draft Cooling Towers
Mechanical draft:
These types of cooling towers are much more widely
used. These towers utilize large fans to force air through
circulated water. The water falls downward over fill
surfaces which help increase the contact time between the
water and the air. This helps maximize heat transfer
between the two.
Mechanical draft towers offer control of cooling rates in
their fan diameter and speed of operation. These towers
often contain several areas (each with their own fan)
called cells.
Mechanical draft Cooling Towers
Mechanical Draft Cooling Towers
 Advantages of mechanical draft
cooling towers over natural draft
cooling towers
For the same capacity used, the mechanical draft
cooling towers are much smaller than the natural
draft cooling towers. This is because of the
increase in cooling capacity due to increase in
volume of the air being forced out by fan.
Capacity control is possible in mechanical draft
cooling tower. By controlling the speed of the fan,
the volume of air can be controlled, which in turn
controls the capacity.
 Advantages of mechanical draft
cooling towers over natural draft
cooling towers
The natural draft cooling towers can be located
only in open space. As they do not depend upon
the atmospheric air, the mechanical draft cooling
towers shall be located even inside the building.
 Disadvantages of using mechanical
draft cooling towers:

More power is required to run the system,

Increased running cost due to increase in
maintenance of the fans, motors and its associated
controls,
Essential Parts of Cooling Tower
 Frame and casing

 Fill

 Cold water basin

 Drift eliminators

 Air inlet

 Louvers

 Nozzles and Fans

Fill:
Most towers employ fills (made of
plastic or wood) to facilitate heat
transfer by maximizing water and air
contact. Fill can either be splash or
film type.
With splash fill, water falls over
successive layers of horizontal splash
bars, continuously breaking into
smaller droplets, while also wetting
the fill surface. Plastic splash fill
promotes better heat transfer than the
wood splash fill.
Film fill consists of thin, closely
spaced plastic surfaces over which the
water spreads, forming a thin film in
contact with the air. These surfaces
may be flat, corrugated,
honeycombed, or other patterns. The
film type of fill is the more efficient
and provides same heat transfer in a
smaller volume than the splash fill.
Nozzles:
These provide the water sprays to wet
the fill. Uniform water distribution at the
top of the fill is essential to achieve
proper wetting of the entire fill surface.
Nozzles can either be fixed in place and
have either round or square spray
patterns or can be part of a rotating
assembly as found in some circular
cross-section towers.
FAN:
The fan is directly driven, axial flow
type fans are specially designed to
ensure AEROFOIL Section throughout
the blade length, this ensure energy
saving and generates maximum air flow
at minimum pitch angle of blades in the
cooling towers. Fans are electronically
balanced made of light weight
Aluminum casting. Fans are durable,
corrosion resistant and low noise
delivering high flow.
Fans
 Fans: Both axial (propeller type) & centrifugal
fans are used
 Axial fans are used in induced draft cooling towers

 Both axial & centrifugal fans used in forced draft

towers
 Purpose: To move a specified quantity of air
through the system, overcoming the system
resistance, which is defined as the pressure loss
 Work done by the fan: air flow x pressure loss
Motor and gear reducer
system

FAN MOTOR:

The motor is totally

weatherproof in IP:55
construction, suitable for
heated and humid atmosphere.
Special low RPM totally
enclosed motor of vertical,
flange type with enlarged
threaded shaft and sealed top is
supplied with the cooling
tower.
 Drift eliminators:
These capture water droplets entrapped
in the air stream that otherwise would
be lost to the atmosphere.

Louvers:
Generally, cross-flow towers have
inlet louvers. The purpose of louvers
is to equalize air flow into the fill and
retain the water within the tower.
Many counter flow tower designs do
not require louvers.

Cold water basin:

The cold water basin, located at or near
the bottom of the tower, receives the
cooled water that flows down through
the tower and fill. The basin usually has
a sump or low point for the cold water
discharge connection. In many tower
designs, the cold water basin is beneath
the entire fill.
Material of Construction
 Wood--- frame, casing, louvers, fill, and cold
water basin (or concrete)
 Galvanised steel, various grades of stainless
steel, glass fibre and concrete, aluminium and
various types of plastics for some components
 Large towers are made of concrete

 Plastics are widely used for fills, including

PVC, polypropylene and other polymers
 Plastics also find wide use in nozzle materials
Performance of Cooling Tower

Cooling towers are rated in terms of approach and

range,
where the approach is the difference in temperature
between the cooled-water temperature and the entering-
air wet bulb - twb - temperature
The range is the temperature difference between the
water inlet and exit states
Performance of Cooling Tower
 Range = (water in – water out temperature)

 Approach = (water out – WBT)

 Effectiveness = Range/(Range + Approach)

 Cooling capacity: Heat rejected in kcal/h

= m.Cp.ΔT
Factors Affecting Performance of
Cooling towers
 Capacity utilization or Amount of water
circulated
 Range
 Determined by the process it is serving
 Determined by heat load

 Wet Bulb temperature: design range is specified

at certain WBT

 The closer the approach to the WBT, the more

expensive the cooling tower due to increased
size
 Wet Bulb Temperature: WBT of air entering
the cooling tower determines operating
temperature levels throughout the plant, process
or system

 Approach & Flow:

 Approach is dependent on WBT of air entering

the cooling tower
 Water circulation rate is directly proportional to
the heat load
Range, Flow, Heat Load
 Range is a direct function of the quantity of
water circulated and the heat load
 Increasing the range as a result of added heat
requires an increase in tower size
 If the hot water temp is constant and the range
is specified with a lower cold water temp, then
the tower size required for such applications
would increase considerably.
Approach And Wet Bulb
Temperature
 Design WBT is determined by the geographical
location.
 Higher WBT, smaller the tower required to give
a specified approach to the wet bulb at a
constant range and flow rate
Fill Media Effects
 Function: Heat exchange between air and water
is influenced by surface area of heat exchange,
time of heat exchange and turbulence in water
effecting thoroughness of intermixing
Design/Sizing of a cooling tower
Cooling Tower Design
Number of humidity transfer Unit ‘Nt’
Height of one humidity transfer unit ‘Ht’
Height of overall column

(For design equations, consult Chapter 10 of BK

Dutta)